At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a few weeks ago, the buzz was all about potential Republican Presidential candidates. “Who do you think it’ll be… Paul, Rubio, Cruz, Christie, Perry, West or Walker?” was the big question and it got old and useless pretty quick. It’s a long time until Super Tuesday and there’s a more important Congressional election to come.

Most of the attendees whom I met at CPAC are just as worried about finding new voters to vote for a Republican Presidential Candidate as they were worried about finding a Republican Presidential Candidate. I don’t know exactly how CPAC decides on its speakers, panels and particularly its panel participants. However, with the Congressional mid-terms coming and the Presidential Election looming… it was a miss to not have a heavy-hitter Panel on attracting more women to Conservatism on the first two days of the Conference. Such a Panel should have been a big priority and yes, it should have been played to the cameras. A hard-charging hour of male and female Conservatives discussing their movement with each other would have done wonders for what otherwise was a mundane CPAC.

Sure the likes of Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Reince Priebus or the Heritage Foundation’s Jim DeMint might sweat bullets about serving on such a Panel. But can anyone deny that a real discussion is needed? Such a discussion would have garnered some good headlines and sent a message to Conservatives that the folks at the top are focused on winning. Not just for the Conservative Movement, but for America itself.

Now CPAC did have a “Women’s Panel,” but it was on the last day and in the last possible time slot. The Panel was called “Why Conservatism is Right for Women: How Conservatives Should Talk About Life, Property, & National Security.” It wasn’t very well publicized nor as well-attended as it should have been. Tammy Bruce did a great job hosting the Panel, as did the other women speaking on it which included Crystal Wright (ConservativeBlackChick.com), Kate Obenshain (Young America’s Foundation), Sabrina Schaeffer (Independent Women’s Forum) and Marilinda Garcia (a New Hampshire State Representative) as Panelists. These four accomplished women were followed up by a Harvard Law graduate and Republican Congressional candidate named Erika Harold. Just how were all five of these women not considered “ready for Prime-Time”?

By the time CPAC’s “Women’s Panel” got rolling about 4:40 or so on Saturday, March 8th, almost all the major TV news network cameras were already gone. Fox News Channel was there as always, as was our country’s great stalwart of public affairs and book authors… C-SPAN. Almost all of the mainstream print and digital media’s first team reporters were gone, too. The mainstreamers did have their junior varsity and freshmen members fill the Media tables in the main speaking hall. Nice young folks, but they weren’t the reporters who get stories read, watched or heard based on their name alone. Heck, Radio Row was pretty much a desert of empty cardboard boxes, tossed business cards and discarded copies of promotional material. The jet-set had long jet-setted out of town. Oh and hundreds of seats in the room had no butts of any kind sitting in them. That is a shame and this points clearly to a problem that mankind has faced since the dawn of human history.

Let’s face it… there is a tendency for men (particularly the Republican-Conservative kind) to hold the belief that when it comes to “women’s issues” such as abortion, contraception (or whether Sandra Fluke was a patsy or not) that “only the girls” should talk about it. Officially-Conservative men (along with Establishment and Consultancy Class Republicans) are big proprietors of this belief. The funny part of this “only the girls” belief is that this is the same belief that is held by most ultra-feminists in the Democratic Party. These Ultra-Feminist women and Officially-Conservative men share this point of view for different reasons stemming from the same emotion – fear.

Some CPAC audience members during the “Women’s Panel.”Courtesy, TheWilliamsView.com

Ultra-Feminist women fear Conservative men discussing women’s concerns in any serious way because their doing so is a threat to their controlling the arguments and the rules of engagement. Feminists in general have held that control for several decades. Officially-Conservative men (ie. Karl Rove, Joe Scarborough) fear any real discussion because they fear a knuckleheaded male Republican saying something stupid and their comment(s) ending up on YouTube, the Drudge Report or MSNBC’s 24-hour rotation. It is true that Indiana Republican Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock did just that and refused to drop out of his race (even after radio host Sean Hannity begged him to quit during a live interview). Mourdock lost his Party a Senate seat, but he shouldn’t cost his Party and Conservatives a place at the women’s discussion table.What these same Officially-Conservative types may not realize is that by not paying attention, engaging women and showing up for opportunities like a CPAC Women’s Panel that they play right into the hand of those who hate them and sometimes beat them in elections.

The “War on Women” motif just like the “War on Blacks and Minorities” works for Democrats when Conservatives and Republicans aren’t even on the battlefield or in the audience. Conservatives lose this Democratic Party-created “War on Women” when they don’t demand a true airing of the issues and we don’t put our best women (and men) out front to discuss them. Is the face of the Republican Party really Richard Mourdock or more likely Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Governor Susan Martinez (R-NM)? Is the face of Conservatism just good, strong men like Rush Limbaugh, Jim DeMint, Rick Santorum and Senator Tim Scott or is it also good, strong women like Tammy Bruce, Kate Obenshein, Marilinda Garcia and Crystal Wright?

At next year’s CPAC or the next big Conservative/Republican confab, the folks in charge should make up for missing the boat so badly. They should ask Tammy Bruce to moderate another Panel… without rules or platitudinous talking points and making darn sure that C-SPAN and the alphabet networks all show up. Step two is to make sure they get a reasonable Democrat like Professor Lara Brown at George Washington University to help run the Panel. She is smart, fair, honest and a great regular on the John Batchelor Show. She could help Conservatives figure out why they are losing with single women under 35 and aren’t doing better with married women. Think about it.

Conservatives have to decide now… are they going to keep on humoring the ladies or actually hear what they have to say and then incorporate their ideas and messages into the Conservative Movement. Will Conservative Men remain happy to have Conservative Women wear the football jersey for the big game, but then tune them out when they begin listing the pros and cons of the 4-3 Defense and left-handed quarterbacks?

Conservative men must offer their female teammates more respect, more airtime and start taking them way more seriously pronto - before the Democrats create more “Wars on women” (and others). Otherwise, get ready to hear that another Liberal-Progressive Democrat has taken the White House in November of 2016. Start now Conservatives, start now.

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Jennifer Williams is an accomplished writer, interviewer and critical reviewer having written about or covered many subjects of interests. Having graduated from Tulane University, La Salle University and New York University, Kevin's career background in Politics and Civic Affairs, Public Relations, Marketing, Non-Profit Management and Filmmaking have helped inspire much of her past artistic and creative efforts. Jennifer directed and co-produced the documentary feature film, Fear Of A Black Republican. Her latest film, Rebel Song, looks at a middle-aged American Celtic Rock band and the music inspired by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Rebel Song is expected to be released in 2014.
In addition to The Williams View, Jennifer is also the Entertainment and Politics Editor for Politisite, a Contributing Writer for Townhall, Breitbart's Big Hollywood, Liberatchik and Hip Hop Republican. Jennifer has been interviewed or profiled across many Media outlets such as the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star, L.A. Weekly; Current TV, Christian Broadcasting Network, Huffington Post Live, Al Jazeera and BET News; radio programs ranging from National Public Radio, Voice of Russia - American Edition, the Mark Davis Radio Show, the Chris Stigall Show, the Steve Deace Show, the Bob Grant Show, Victoria Taft Show, to the Michael Eric Dyson Show and many others.

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1 Comment on "What do Ultra-Feminists and some Conservative Men have in common?"

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